The subject matter herein relates generally to electrical connectors and, more particularly, to electrical connectors that are interconnected by a flexible circuit member.
Blade server systems may include several blade server circuit boards that are mounted to a backplane board. In some known blade server systems, the blade server circuit boards are loaded into a server box in a parallel relationship. For example, the blade server circuit boards are placed into the server box so that the blade server circuit boards are approximately parallel with respect to one another. A backplane circuit board, or backplane board, is located within the server box along the back face or wall of the box. The backplane board and blade server circuit boards are approximately perpendicular with respect to one another when the blade server circuit boards are loaded into the server box. A motherboard may be provided in the server box and may engage the blade server circuit boards when the circuit boards are loaded into the box. Connectors mounted to the blade server circuit boards and the motherboard permit communication between the blade server circuit boards and the motherboard. Additional connectors mounted to the motherboard and the backplane board permit communication between the motherboard and the backplane board.
The backplane board and blade server boards may communicate data signals and/or electric power with one another using the connectors and the motherboard. The blade server boards include electronic components mounted thereon that communicate data signals and/or electronic power with the backplane board. The backplane board includes one or more additional connectors disposed along or proximate to an outside surface of the server box to permit peripheral devices to mate with and thereby communicate with the backplane board. The peripheral devices communicate data signals and/or electric power with the blade server circuit boards via the backplane board.
In order to route data signals between components mounted to the blade server circuit boards and the backplane board, conductive traces in the blade server circuit boards extend from the components to connectors that mate the blade server circuit boards with the motherboard. Additional conductive traces in the motherboard communicate the data signals through the motherboard to one or more additional connectors. The additional connectors convey the data signals to conductive traces in the backplane board, which communicate the data signals to the peripheral devices via the connectors mounted to the backplane board.
The routing of data signals along such a path may require the data signals to pass along a variety of conductive pathways held in various different materials. For example, data signals may be communicated along conductive traces in different circuit boards and along different conductive contacts in various connectors. As the data signals are transmitted between these different pathways held in different materials, the data signals may become affected by the varied materials. For example, with respect to differential pair data signals, the time skew of the signals may be increased as the propagation path passes through several, non-homogenous materials. With increasing data rates, the time skew induced in the differential pair signals presents an increasing obstacle with respect to data reliability.
Thus, a need exists for a system or assembly that reduces the number of various materials and/or components through which data signals may travel along conductive pathways. Reducing the number of materials and/or components may improve signal integrity and reliability by reducing time skew in data signals, for example.